{"id":64422,"date":"2014-03-12T07:45:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T12:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=64422"},"modified":"2014-03-12T15:58:22","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T20:58:22","slug":"how-does-a-membership-to-a-field-specific-societyassociation-help-your-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=64422","title":{"rendered":"How does a membership to a field-specific society\/association help your career?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Roselle Pendergast, Head Editor,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?page_id=56499\" target=\"_blank\">INALJ Minnesota<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">How does a membership to a field-specific society\/association help your career?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Roselle.Pendergast.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-45845 alignleft\" alt=\"Roselle.Pendergast\" src=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Roselle.Pendergast.jpg\" width=\"208\" height=\"138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Roselle.Pendergast.jpg 576w, https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Roselle.Pendergast-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 208px) 100vw, 208px\" \/><\/a>There are TONS of different library societies\/associations out there (large and small) and I\u00a0have no doubt at all that there\u2019s also societies founded within your own state; look\u00a0at Minnesota for an example, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mnlibraryassociation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Library Association<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/tcartmn.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Twin Cities Archives\u00a0Round Table<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The main question here, how does being a member of those societies\/associations\u00a0help your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lets use <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.archivists.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Society of American Archivists<\/a> as an example. &#8216;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As a member of SAA, you\u00a0have access to the <a href=\"http:\/\/careers.archivists.org\/careerdev\/blueskyLMS\/product.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Career Learning Center<\/a>, which has different presentations that\u00a0talk about resumes, networking, and building your career.<\/li>\n<li>They also offer specialist\u00a0certificates, such as SAA\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.archivists.org\/prof-education\/das\" target=\"_blank\">Digital Archives Specialist Curriculum and Certificate\u00a0Program<\/a>, which help expand your expertise.<\/li>\n<li>There\u2019s also the perk of attending the\u00a0conferences to network with like-minded people and make connections that will be\u00a0super beneficial in the near future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yes, these conferences\/conventions can be quite\u00a0costly, which brings up my next point.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Being a member at a local society or association has its benefits, <strong>such as being\u00a0close to home<\/strong> for one.<\/li>\n<li>Another benefit would be socializing with local peers,\u00a0where you can develop stronger networking ties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Benefits: for an example, at <a href=\"http:\/\/tcartmn.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Twin Cities\u00a0Archives Round Table<\/a>, they have annual meetings twice a year, usually at a place\u00a0of prominence. In Fall 2013, for their annual meeting, they met at Red Wing\u00a0Shoes\u2019 corporate archives in Red Wing, MN to learn about textile conservation.\u00a0As a member of TCART, members receive emails through TCART from other\u00a0organizations with job offers or volunteering opportunities that are usually not\u00a0found elsewhere (i.e., job boards). Check with your local society or association and\u00a0become a member today!<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also the one we all know and love, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ala.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">American Library Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ALA has\u00a0tons of tools available to both members and non-members such as where to find an\u00a0ALA-accredited college\/university program, the upcoming conferences and events,\u00a0professional tools, and so on.<\/li>\n<li>ALA also offers ways to make connections online via\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/connect.ala.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">ALA Connect<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Because ALA is so vast, ALA Connect allows you to meet up with like-minded groups online and discuss all our favorite topics! It\u2019s also an excellent way\u00a0to make important connections. It\u2019s definitely NOT one to overlook.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>While on the subject of memberships, another kind of association that is quite\u00a0often overlooked, to me anyway, is your college\/university\u2019s alumni service.<\/strong> For\u00a0an example, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www4.uwm.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">University of Wisconsin: Milwaukee<\/a> (my alma mater) has excellent\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www4.uwm.edu\/alumni\/\" target=\"_blank\">alumni services<\/a>. Within an UWM Alumni\u2019s first year after graduation, the brand\u00a0new alumnus is eligible for six free appointments with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www4.uwm.edu\/cdc\/\" target=\"_blank\">career development\u00a0center<\/a>. There are also other <a href=\"http:\/\/www4.uwm.edu\/alumni\/career_services\/resources.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">career support resources<\/a> to take advantage of, such\u00a0as assistance in making a career transition, and providing you with connections\u00a0through the university.<\/p>\n<p>You can also volunteer at your alma mater and with your associations and societies.\u00a0Your volunteering opportunities help put you in the perfect spots to network with\u00a0fellow alumni and\/or members of your associations and societies. The associations\u00a0and societies you are a part of REALLY do help your career, not just by being\u00a0a member but by being an active participant, whether it be in person through\u00a0meetings\/conventions or online as a volunteer. So, my advice, take advantage of it\u00a0and go forth!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Roselle Pendergast, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Minnesota How does a membership to a field-specific society\/association help your career? There are TONS of different library societies\/associations out there (large and small) and I\u00a0have no doubt at all that there\u2019s also societies founded within your own state; look\u00a0at Minnesota for an example, Minnesota Library Association or Twin Cities&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=64422\">Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":45845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,4770,3137,3643,411,412,5605],"class_list":["post-64422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-career-advice","tag-career-builder","tag-inalj-minnesota","tag-library-association","tag-library-associations","tag-roselle-pendergast"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Roselle.Pendergast.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-gL4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}